Jeremiah 1:5

1:5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ¹  I chose you. ² 

Before you were born I set you apart.

I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 16:7

16:7 No one will take any food to those who mourn for the dead to comfort them. No one will give them any wine to drink to console them for the loss of their father or mother.

Jeremiah 22:26

22:26 I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to ³  a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

Jeremiah 29:2

29:2 He sent it after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the palace officials, ⁴  the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had been exiled from Jerusalem. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 52:1

The Fall of Jerusalem

52:1 ⁶ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem ⁷  for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal ⁸  daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

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¹ tn Heb “the womb.” The words “your mother’s” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “I knew you.” The parallelism here with “set you apart” and “appointed you” make clear that Jeremiah is speaking of his foreordination to be a prophet. For this same nuance of the Hebrew verb see Gen 18:19; Amos 3:2.

³ tn Heb “I will hurl you and your mother…into another land where…” The verb used here is very forceful. It is the verb used for Saul throwing a spear at David (1 Sam 18:11) and for the Lord unleashing a violent storm on the sea (Jonah 1:4). It is used both here and in v. 28 for the forceful exile of Jeconiah and his mother.

⁴ tn This term is often mistakenly understood to refer to a “eunuch.” It is clear, however, in Gen 39:1 that “eunuchs” could be married. On the other hand it is clear from Isa 59:3-5 that some who bore this title could not have children. In this period, it is possible that the persons who bore this title were high officials like the rab saris who was a high official in the Babylonian court (cf. Jer 39:3, 13; 52:25). For further references see HALOT 727 s.v. סָרִיס 1.c.

⁵ sn See 2 Kgs 24:14-16 and compare the study note on Jer 24:1.

⁶ sn This final chapter does not mention Jeremiah, but its description of the downfall of Jerusalem and exile of the people validates the prophet’s ministry.

⁷ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁸ tn Some textual witnesses support the Kethib (consonantal text) in reading “Hamital.”